Visit to the Allergy Scare Site

I interrupt this Euro Recap Special to talk about my run yesterday.

If you remember, a couple of months ago I ran a familiar route in my neighborhood only to land in the Emergency Room after. Somewhere along the way, I started swelling in my lips and ears and saw hives creepy crawl up from my toes to the rest of my body covering me completely. It was one of the scariest days of my life.

Since then, I haven’t run in my neighborhood for fear of have a relapse. I’m now forced to carry an Epi-pen in the event something like that happens again so I’m at least better prepared, but the anxiety of even getting near the area of when it started has kept me away.

Until yesterday.

I woke up wanting to run and knew I could head to my gym and get some treadmill miles or go along the canal where I usually run with my running group. Or I could run around my neighborhood. With my mom visiting, I have this luxury of options.

I decided to forego having to travel by car anywhere and run a route I’ve done nearby. I knew I didn’t want to tempt fate and do the exact route of the allergy scare, but I wanted to at least go near it for some reason–kinda just to see.

So off I went. Started out along the same path and when it came time to go down the bike path where I swear was the cause of my allergy attack, I bypassed it and went down a main street instead.

Once I had gone completely around it, around mile 2, I reached the end of the “tunnel” where I would’ve come out from had I gone down that path. This was when I first started to feel the tingling sensation in my fingers. The first sign of something wrong.

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I felt perfectly fine. I stopped and took this ^ picture and thought about that day and how a simple run became a life changing experience. It’s never completely out of my mind. When I run, for a split second I wonder if it’ll happen again. I push the thought back in my brain and refocus but it’s always there. That little speck of anxiety and fear hanging out in the deep, dark corners of my head.

I went back to running and did a quick body feel and no welts or hives in sight.

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I finished the easy 4 mile run and was relieved that it had been an eventless journey. I was prepared in case something had happened, running with my phone (which I usually never do) and with my Epi-pen (which I mostly always do) in my SPI belt.

It’s going to be a while before I can run without wondering if something might happen. I think it’s normal and just a part of having gone through something traumatic. Especially since doctors found no real culprit to the cause of my attack. I’m pretty certain it was something in that tunnel. A bug I ate, or a bug that bit me (I didn’t feel any), a tree, a flower, a bush, something….I have no idea.

It’s the not knowing that’s so unnerving.

–Have you had something scary happen to you while on a run?

–Do you ever run with some kind of fear?

Have a good weekend everyone! I’ll be back to tell you all about Italy 🙂

Shamrock Shuffle 5k Recap and Allergy Update

First, HAPPY St. Patrick’s Day!!

So, I wasn’t sure whether to run my run club’s annual Shamrock Shuffle 5k yesterday. It was noncompetitive, unclipped, and just something fun to get all of us together. I figured, why not? I knew I didn’t want to be scared away from running after what happened on Friday so I felt this was a good way to ease back in. My husband was coming along and that made me feel a lot better about my decision.

It was an absolute perfect weather day. I mean, I was in a tank and shorts. (Sorry east coasters!) I’m not a dress up person when it comes to fun runs–I just can’t deal with unneeded accessories while I run lol. I do however, go all out during school dress up days! So I was just in some Swirlgear attire that had a hint of green.

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I had my SPIbelt with my new Epi Pen with me and headed out. I had no idea what pace I was going although I had started my watch. I decided to not look or worry about it and just enjoy the run as best as I could.

The first mile beeped but I kept going. I was running with a run club friend and we were chatting the entire way. It was such a leisurely run that before I knew I it, we were done.

I stopped my watch and took my first look:

32:50
10:36/mile

I was not the least bit phased or concerned. All I wanted was to run and get some of the jitters out and this was the perfect opportunity to do it.

Since my last post describing what happened this past Friday, a lot of running friends have reached out and shared their own running allergy experiences. After doing some of my own research and hearing the stories of these runners (especially my buddy For The Love of Running), I think it’s the closest thing I can explain what happened is what’s called an Exercise Induced Anaphylaxis. This is a good article describing what it it and how it happens. There are different causes, but what I think triggered mine was eating and then running immediately after. I’ve done this before (I know, bad!) so I still think it’s strange but it’s the only thing that makes sense. I did absolutely nothing different during the run, did not wear anything new, did not eat anything different. I’m simply at a loss.

I did not feel a hint of what I felt on Friday during the Shamrock Shuffle 5k.

I’ll be seeing an allergist soon to try and get some answers. In the meantime, I want to continue running and not let what happened throw me off of what I’ve got going on.

–Did you race this weekend?

–How was your running week last week?